Graham Rice's New Plants Blog

Editor-in-Chief of the RHS Encyclopedia of Perennials; writer for a wide range of newspapers and magazines including The Garden and The Plantsman; member of the RHS Herbaceous Plant Committee and Floral Trials Committee; author of many books on plants and gardens.

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Have you got your copy yet? Don't make do with last year's Plant Finder. Apart from anything else there are over four thousand new plants included this year - 4,183, to be precise. I know, some of these are returning after not being available last year - but still, that's an impressive number.

And these newcomers include thirty five new Agapanthus, forty five Aloe (almost all from Agave Nursery), forty new Clematis, too many dahlias to count, far far too many fuchsias (many from P & B Fuchsias), hemerocallis and hostas to count), forty three hardy geraniums... The list goes temptingly on. There's an intriguing range of Lachenalia species from Choice Landscapes and enough Primula sieboldii for any woodland garden... Not to mention a variegated dandelion (Taraxacum officinale 'Tapeley'), a lovely flowering plectranthus for containers (Plectranthus ‘Mona Lavender'), a dramatic red-and-white bicoloured salvia (Salvia x jamensis ‘Hot Lips') which you may have seen at shows last year and Raymond Evison's new clematis (REBECCA), not to be launched until Chelsea next month.

But don't let anyone tell you that the newly included Phlox paniculata ‘David's Lavender' is mildew resistant. Sorry, RHS Plant Centre, it's a lovely shade, and vigorous - but not at all mildew resistant. And neither, in spite of what you might read, is its parent ‘David'.

New plants. There are more and more of them accompanied by more and more hype. But we all like to see the latest varieties and to try those which look especially enticing in our own gardens.

So here I'll be bringing you news of the latest introductions - some too new even to be in the very latest edition of the RHS Plant Finder - like this gorgeous double white hardy geranium which I'll be telling you more about soon.

I'm sharing this space with the team from the RHS Trials Office at Wisley, and it's at the trials that the best of the new varieties often come to light. They'll be updating you on news from the trials, I'll be bringing news of the most interesting new plants - and where you can get them.

So check back here regularly. And if you're a nursery, a grower, a seed company, a plant breeder or a garden centre introducing something new - email me and tell me all about it. And in between reading this blog, and the other great RHS blogs, you can also keep an eye on what I'm up to on my Transatlantic Plantsman blog - where I've also sometimes been discussing new plants.